


City

by zap_said_the_lady



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, Bartender!Nino, F/M, Jazz Club AU, One Shot, Singer!Marinette, for now at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 13:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7846564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zap_said_the_lady/pseuds/zap_said_the_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette rarely lets anyone talk to her for too long when she's working. But when she does, she is a completely different person, confident, sexy, everything she isn't when she steps off the stage. Here in these deep city lights, a girl could get lost tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	City

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song City by Sara Bareilles. Enjoy!

Saturday night arrived as usual. Marinette in a red dress, standing in front of her microphone, filling the air with her voice. Most of her band was already a few drinks in, bought for them by audience members, but she had politely refused. She knew how to command the stage and keep the audience’s attention while doing the least possible, and she was the queen of it.  
  
Sara Bareilles had taken over her music recently, so she had been sprinkling some of her songs in with the usual set, but she hadn’t gotten to the one she was most excited for yet. That one she wanted to save until the very end.  
  
Forty minutes into her set, she had gotten a break. She stepped off stage while her bassist stepped up to the mic and started scatting to an open jam the band was playing. Marinette walked up to the bar, her friend Nino was usually the bartender on Saturday nights and he was pretty good at keeping weird guys from bugging her on her breaks. However tonight, he seemed distracted.  
  
Marinette didn’t pay much attention to the blond Nino was talking to. She just waited a few seats down from him until there was a natural pause in the conversation that she could ask for a cup of water. When Nino stepped away to get it for her, the blond turned her way. “I’m Adrien.” He held out his hand. Marinette was used to random guys introducing themselves to her so it didn’t strike her as odd. What she did notice though, was that he was clearly more attractive than most of the guys that tried to talk to her. She took his hand and introduced herself.  
  
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to bother you on your break or anything. I’m one of Nino’s friends. He wanted me to come down tonight cause he thought I would enjoy hearing you sing,” Adrien said a little sheepishly.  
  
After a pause Marinette smiled at him. “Well, was he right?” she asked.  
  
Adrien seemed to brighten up to her actually engaging him in conversation. “Absolutely. You’re voice is amazing.”  
  
Nino set down her glass of water as she thanked him. “I see you two got acquainted while I was gone,” he said eyeing Adrien. Marinette could tell that Nino was doing everything he could to not elbow Adrien and wiggle his eyebrows at him. She couldn’t read Adrien’s expression though.  
Adrien cleared his through. “I’ll pick up her tab tonight Nino, whatever she wants is on me.”  
  
“That’s very nice of you, but I’m afraid it’s just water. Anything else messes with my vocal chords and I can’t sing very well,” Marinette said.  
“Lucky you. Normally when people use lines like that on her she responds with something along the lines of ‘then add being left alone to his tab’ or something,” Nino laughed and clapped Adrien on the arm.  
  
“Nino, you don’t have to be obnoxious,” Marinette chided him.  
  
“I’m a bar tender. That’s like half my job.”  
  
She sighed. “Well, I have to go back on. It was nice meeting you, Adrien.” She walked off before he could even respond.

 

On her second break, Adrien left her alone. Nino had mentioned how she liked to rest her vocal chords in between sets so he respected that. Right before she went on, however, Nino put a napkin down in front of her. It read, I would like to talk to you for a bit when you’re finished for the night if that is okay with you —Adrien.  
  
She couldn’t help but smile. It was such a polite thing to do. Marinette looked up to ask Nino for a pen, but his expression made her ask something else. “What’s with that look?”  
  
“On a scale of one to ten, how well do napkin notes work with the ladies?”  
  
Marinette was silent for a few seconds before holding out her hand. “Pen.”  
  
Of course. I’ll meet you by the bar —Marinette. She gave the note and the pen back to Nino, took one last swig of her water and walked away.  
“I’ll take that as a ten!” he called after her.

 

As the night went on, the band was pared down to just piano, drums, and Marinette. She lets the band leave when they need to throughout the night. There was something beautiful in the simplicity.  
  
When the two chords that had been dancing in her head all day finally rang out on the piano, she knew the night was finally drawing to a close. The closer she got to the end of the song, the more invested in it she got. It was like she was singing straight from her soul. There were always boys trying to talk to her, and only listened to her sing. There were slime balls that tried to convince her if she slept with them they could make her famous. She was the one fading and getting lost in the bright lights. The only thing keeping her from disappearing completely was a pair of dazzling green eyes. Marinette locked onto them. “There’s nothing here to hold on to. Could I hold on to you?” she sang, gently holding the stand of the microphone.  
  
Her voice faded and the last chord floated through the air, getting drowned out by the applause of the club. She took a small bow, thanked the crowd and walked off stage.  
  
Marinette had gotten changed and walked out to the bar. She was mostly expecting Adrien to be gone and Nino to be fighting off some other creep from trying to talk to her as usual, but there he was. Adrien sat on a stool at the bar, scrolling on his phone talking to Nino as he cleaned the bar.  
  
Suddenly, all of the courage Marinette had while talking to him was gone. As if she took it off and hung it up with her dress. She should just turn back and go out the back door before he saw her and have Nino give him some random excuse. But it was too late, Adrien had looked up and spotted her.  
  
Marinette forced herself to walk toward him and sit down. She sat down one seat away from him. This way, Nino would be welcome in the conversation if she needed a save. Marinette felt strange sitting in the club after hours with someone other than Nino or Nino’s girlfriend and her best friend Alya.  
  
“You’re amazing,” Adrien said. The bluntness of his statement caught Marinette off guard. She almost knocked over the cup of water Nino had put down in front of her.  
  
Marinette stammered out a thank you and began practically chugging the glass in an attempt to not speak.  
  
“Since I couldn’t pick up your tab for your drinks tonight, how about I pick up the bill for dinner sometime?” he asked.  
  
Marinette nearly choked. She had been asked out directly before, but this seemed so different. He was so smooth with it, it almost felt like he had said it to her a million times before. All eyes were on her for an answer, and even though it was just Adrien and Nino, it felt like the club was full of people again and everyone was staring at her. “I, um… Sure,” she finally said.  
  
Adrien beamed. “Sounds great, next Friday at seven?”  
  
Marinette pushed her hair behind her ear and nodded. Between her nerves and two hours of singing, she could barely speak.  
  
There was a lull when Nino stepped in to save her. “Why don’t you write down you number for him so he can text you details, Marinette?” He passed her a napkin and pen. Marinette wrote down her name and number on autopilot and handed it to Adrien.  
  
When he took it from her, he let his hand linger on hers for a second. “I’ll see you Friday,” he said. Then took the napkin, waved to Nino and walked out.  
  
Once the door was closed, Nino looked back at her. “Smooth.”  
  
Marinette dropped her head down on the bar and groaned.


End file.
